After staying in the Siena area for 2 nights we started driving towards our next stop to explore Lucca.
We chose an incredibly beautiful Italian farmhouse in the rural town called Capannori located just 20 minutes away from the city of Lucca by car.
Capannori Natural Way of Living
Local citizens are very responsible and play the key role in preserving local environment. In 1997 they had to join their forces in order to fight the construction of a waste burning plant in the area. As a result of their efforts they have managed to succeed and introduce a modern waste management solution that has been adopted by the whole Europe! Today Capannori is the most advanced European town in adopting the Zero Waste initiative.
The town currently manages to recycle 81 percent of its waste. The garbage production data is collected and stored for every family in Capannori. This allows to calculate the individual annual waste tax based on the amount of non-recyclable garbage produced by a particular household every year. Very advanced!
Beautiful Italian Farmhouse in the Province of Lucca
I would say that this is one of the best Italian farmhouse hotels that I have ever stayed at.
The place is called Relais Del Lago and it’s a family owned property that includes guest rooms, a restaurant, beautiful outside area with a pool and a pond that’s full of fish.
There is a cozy sitting area outside the hotel under the vine leaves where they serve breakfast and a lovely public living room on the first floor where you can relax with your family or friends after lunch.
One great thing about this Italian farmhouse is that you can feel a family touch in every part of the property whether it be wooden furniture in the guest rooms or ancient flower pots in the garden.
Avoid ZTL Areas and Stay in the Italian Countryside
People who have traveled Italy by car definitely know what ZTL means. As I have mentioned before it’s much more convenient to stay in the Italian countryside rather than in one of the ancient cities while exploring this beautiful country by car. The auto traffic system in cities like Lucca, Florence or Siena can be very confusing. Most of these tourist cities have the central historic areas where a number of restrictions are applied to the incoming car traffic. These areas are referred to as Zones with Limited Traffic – ZTL (Zona a Traffico Limitato) and require a special permit in order to be able to drive there. These areas are controlled by video cameras, so there is no way you can avoid a fine if you drive there during a wrong time period. Parking in the historic center is another challenge that you’ll be faced with if you decide to leave your car closer to all the attractions.
My advice to you is to book some nice Italian Farmhouse hotel for your stay. Then when you go to explore one of the tourist towns, just leave your car at a public parking lot outside the downtown area and avoid ZTL.
Our Lucca Agriturismo Experience Wraps Up in the City of Lucca
After enjoying our 3 day Lucca agriturismo vacation it was time for some city sightseeing before moving to our next destination.
Lucca is another cozy Italian city with a rich history. What’s interesting is that at some point it was ruled by Élisa Bonaparte, one of Napoleon’s sisters. As I heard from several people Lucca had some similarities with the French capital.
I also found this resemblance while walking on some of the streets. Looks like Elisa really missed Paris during that period of time and tried to recreate her home city in Lucca.
Walking around the city you’ll see a lot of shops where they sell various leather products ranging from gloves to hand bags. It’s no wonder because Lucca is considered to be one of the centers of leather handicrafts. We have allocated several hours to browse local city streets and it was more than enough because Lucca is not very big.
In the next post I’ll write about two other cities that we have also visited while staying in the Lucca area. The first city is Pisa with its world famous tower and the other one is the coastal Forte dei Marmi. Stay tuned!
